


The Nosebeast Statue

by landofspaceandrainbows (cereus)



Category: The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Genre: Drabble, Drabble Sequence, Experimental Style, Folktales, Kitsune, Major Character Injury, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Nonbinary Character, Other, Peeping, Prejudice Against Monsters, Triple Drabble, pronouns change with kemmer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25253071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cereus/pseuds/landofspaceandrainbows
Summary: A tale within a tale from old Karhide.
Relationships: Genly Ai/Therem Harth rem ir Estraven
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Banned Together Bingo 2020, Multifandom Drabble 2020





	The Nosebeast Statue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Serenity_Ribbon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenity_Ribbon/gifts).



Esty placed their hand on the worn stone hump. 

"Pardon me Venerable Estraven, but is there a reason you visit this statue so much?" the young messenger asked, "It's a small old statue, in a small shrine, in a small street on the edge of town." 

"There is." 

"Is it a reason you are willing to share your grace? If not, I understand." 

"There is a story associated with the statue, a tale, do you have the time between errands for me to tell it?"

"Yes! ...your grace" the youth quickly amended. And Estraven patted the stone and began talking.

**~~**

  
  
A brewer met a nobleperson one day. They saw that they were entering kemmer too, as the most beautiful woman he ever saw. When he got close he called out for her to stay, and share some of the new alewine made this spring from the season's fresh khunis. She did and they found eachother's conversation to their liking. They shared kemer and when it came time for the lady to go, she assented happily and promised to share kemer with him on one condition - that he not visit her in the time of the two new moons, but only when they were in kemmer together. This seemed like an easy thing for him at the time, for this was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. As kemmer waned they hugged them goodbye and went back to their job at the brewery. And in the next sweep, he went to the country house, spent three deliriously happy days there with the lady. And so the two of them kept this rhythm for many sweeps, as man or woman.

But as time went on the brewer became more curious, if this noble was so beautiful and so well spoken, surely they might be interesting in other times, maybe they were horrible and had some secret? In either case, surely it would not be so wrong to investigate? So he snuck to her house to investigate. When he got there, he saw that she was a nosebeast, with lustrous white fur and brown eyes and nine tails. But she was also like a beast, in constant heat, in rut, like an animal. It was disgusting to him. So he cast her out, but on the way out, her beast skin's foot caught on fire, and she's been missing it since.

**~~**

"It sounds like the brewer might miss the were beast? Did they?"

"Yes, they probably did, very much."

"And how does this statue come into the story?"

"This statue was where they first met."

"And so they visit the statue..."

"And sigh and look at the ice on the needlebushes which remind them of their fur"

"Well, I hope the story has a happy or harmonious ending, for the brewer's sake"

"It might, speaking of which where is your mail?" Estraven asked. And the messenger handed it.

Estraven smiled as it joined the stack, the top message reading "From: Ai"


End file.
